Objective: Foster theatrical perFormance to comBat discrimination in schOOls & tacKle early leaving Erasmus Project

Project Title

Objective: Foster theatrical perFormance to comBat discrimination in schOOls & tacKle early leaving

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Integration of refugees; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

CONTEXT
The school system in many European countries is based on a judgmental approach, with teachers evaluating students’ performances on acquired knowledge. As a consequence the school rejects instead of including, and students with a “poor” performance drop out.

OBJECTIVES
The aim of the OFF-Book project is to promote school inclusiveness and the mutual understanding among different cultures as a strategic aim to contribute to the prevention of early school leaving. The innovative element of the project is the introduction of education through performing arts and drama theatre in particular without applying any judgmental approach.

PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS
In terms of results achieved of target groups involved:
– a total number of 22 schools have been involved (the expected result was 17)
– a total number of 58 teachers have been involved(the expected result was 42)
– a total number of 1392 students have been involved(the expected result was 760)
– a total number of 389 students with fewer opportunities have been involved (the expected result was 355)

The expected results have been, therefore, achieved and exceeded. The target groups were directly involved in the carrying out of the project activities. The OFF-Book project had a relevant impact on their needs as it produced tools and methodologies to support teachers in dealing with the inclusion process of students.

Many more potential stakeholders, to be estimated in more than 10 000 have been directly reached through the dissemination activities. If in the count we also include the potential target groups reached with papers and online articles the total number is bigger than 100 000 people.

ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS
The project activities have been organized in the following phases:

Phase 1 – Development of the Guidelines
The guidelines include 4 different modules. Each module is articulated in chapters, paragrahs and further usefull online resources. The modules are:
– Understanding School Leaving (https://off-book.pixel-online.org/TG01.php).
– Methodological and pedagogical aspects (https://off-book.pixel-online.org/TG02.php)
– Theatre as Experiential Learning Tool: Step by Step Process to Implement Theatrical Laboratories in Classroom (https://off-book.pixel-online.org/TG03.php)
– Practical examples of Theatrical Laboratories to be implemented at school (https://off-book.pixel-online.org/TG01.php).
For each practical activitie, 2 videos have been produced: a video tutorial to help the teachers in the implementation and a video testimonial of direct implementation in one of partners countries involved. These 2 videos were not originally planned.

Phase 2 – Production of Video Tutorial
This phase was dedicated to the creation of a tutorial that shows, through video, the practical implementation of the theatrical approach to education. It assumed the form of a “travel diary” that encompasses all the experiences performed in the OFF-Book project and shares the experiences of all users (students, teachers and professionals) from the organizational phase until the closing of the experience.
The video tutorial is available at https://off-book.pixel-online.org/VD_list.php.
The video tutorial has been created starting from the national videos recorded by the project partners and that present each national experience.

Phase 3 – Testing
Each of the deliverables produced has been tested in the framework of specific events addressed to the project’s target groups. Teatro Stabile Grosseto (IT) organized several national workshops in Italy and 2 transnational workshops, one in Romanian and one in Lithuania. The testing phase allowed the collection of relevant feedbacks from the end users in order to further improve the deliverables produced and create results that are fully consistent with needs and expectations of the end users.

Phase 4 – Multiplier events
The project partners organized events addressed to teachers and policy makers, during which both project results characteristics have been presented to the audience, explaining their aims and potential impact on educational practices to foster inclusion and mutual understanding in multicultural classes through performing arts.

IMPACT
As far as the impact of the project is concerned, the project contributed to:
– Enhancing a new dialogue pattern among teachers and students
– Enhancing students’ skills with special reference to soft skills
– Enhancing the dialogue among students with special concern to multicultural classes in order to combat prejudices and discrimination practices
– Combating early school leaving as a consequence of the shift in teachers/students relation from vertical to horizontal
– Teachers’ curricula development with special reference to the role of facilitator in non-formal education environments
– Improving schools’ capacity of planning, managing, implementing and evaluating new educational paths with special reference to multiculturalism favoring civil coexistence

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 199852 Eur

Project Coordinator

KLAIPEDOS UNIVERSITETAS & Country: LT

Project Partners

• Colegiul National de Arta “Octav Bancila”
• PIXEL – ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE
• Klaipedos Simono Dacho progimnazija
• UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI SIENA
• Teatro Stabile di Grosseto
• Scoala Primara EuroEd
• Klaipeda Puppet Theatre